Yellowstone snowmobilers suffer whiplash

&#8220;On second thought, maybe I don't care to see
the wildlife.&#8221;<br>snowmobilers in Yellowstone
cartoon

Patrick Bagley

Judge says Interior Department
is to blame for last-minute reinstatement of snowmobile
ban

The Bush administration’s long, steady push to
keep snowmobiles running in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national
parks has finally been broken off by the courts.

On Dec.
16, just hours before the snowmobile season was scheduled to
throttle up, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington,
D.C., killed a pro-snowmobile plan issued by the National Park
Service under Bush. Ruling on lawsuits brought by environmental
groups, Judge Sullivan blasted the plan as "severely flawed" and
"completely politically driven."

Instead, the judge
reinstalled a plan, originally issued in 2000 under the Clinton
administration, which was designed to protect wildlife, clean air
and quiet. That plan cuts the traffic to about 550 recreational
snowmobiles in the parks each day this winter — half the
number allowed under the Bush plan — and bans them entirely
beginning next winter. From then on, winter tourists will have to
travel on skis or snowshoes, or ride in van-like
snowcoaches.

The ban was supported by many current and
former Park Service staffers, along with a lineup of former
Department of Interior officials and the great majority of public
comment. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, The Wilderness Society
and the National Parks Conservation Association filed the lawsuit
to bring back the ban.

The Bush administration, at the
urging of the snowmobile industry and snowmobile groups, had
pressured the parks to back off (HCN, 11/25/02: Feds bail on
snowmobile ban). Judge Sullivan found evidence of the internal
politics involved, including Park Service notes that said
Bush’s secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, "wants to be
able to come away saying some snowmobiles are allowed."

Though manufacturers have begun producing snowmobiles that are much
cleaner and somewhat quieter for use in the parks, the judge cited
the park’s own research, which said the new machines are
still not clean or quiet enough.

The ruling caused
upheaval here, in a town that bills itself as "The Snowmobile
Capital of the World." Betting that the Bush plan would stand,
snowmobile-rental businesses have spent hundreds of thousands of
dollars adding cleaner machines to their fleets. "It’s cruel
and unusual punishment," said Randy Roberson, who runs a rental
fleet, motels and a snowmobile dealership. But snowmobilers still
have access to hundreds of miles of trails in nearby national
forests, as well as the town’s streets and an old airstrip
where they race.

Judge Sullivan said neither he nor the
environmentalists should be blamed for the last-minute timing of
his ruling. The Interior Department delayed formally issuing the
"final rule" on the Bush plan until just six days before the season
was to open, he said, and the timing was "entirely in the control
of the federal defendants."

Yellowstone Park
Superintendent Suzanne Lewis offered little comment. Pro-snowmobile
groups and Wyoming’s attorney general have appealed, and are
hoping for a quick decision from a higher court, but the process
could stretch out for a year. The state of Wyoming has also
reopened a second suit in federal court, hoping to derail the
Clinton plan again.

Such persistence "promotes conflict
and increases uncertainty," said Michael Scott, director of the
Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which has promised to promote
snowcoach tourism. "And that isn’t good for the park or for
the gateway communities."

Environmental groups disagree
about snowcoaches. The Fund For Animals, the Blue Water Network and
other groups filed a separate lawsuit seeking to halt all motorized
winter travel, including snowcoaches. The groups claim trail
grooming distorts wildlife migration patterns, opening routes for
bison to stray outside the park, where they are killed due to fears
they could spread brucellosis to cattle. In response to that suit,
Judge Sullivan ordered the government to take a hard, formal look
at all trail grooming.